After a bumpy summer, I started settling things down in September. It didn’t go perfectly, but I made progress. I did more fun things – which, for me, is basically anything that doesn’t require much planning or preparation. I went to the Sutton Bonnington show, did some hiking with Mr Spratt, visited Leeds Zine Fair, and spent a good day bimbling around Todmorden with a friend.
A big highlight of the month was that visit from Mr Spratt to walk a section of the Calderdale Way. The walk felt harder than it should have been, but it was good to do a decent hike (my first of the year!) We went from Ripponden to Heptonstall – familiar territory but I found some new paths.
It was another bad month with my weight – another pound slipped on, meaning I’m about 5 pounds heavier than this time last year. Work and sleep schedules meant very few gym sessions, so I’ve put the daily steps from 6,000 back to 10,000 for October. I also need to be sleeping much better than I am.
.For various reasons, I’ve been cooking low-FODMAP dishes at home. This involves cutting out various things including onions and garlic – both of which I rely on for my cooking. I’ve struggled with this and decided to ask an LLM what cuisines I could cook without adulteration. It suggested Japanese which turned out to be good advice, and I’ve been getting back into cooking.
Writing was slow in September. I had a few big projects to work on, and neglected the mailing list. The Advent Calendar took a lot of time. Several stories were dropped from this for being too dark, but I finally have a set that I’m happy with. I’ve also been making preparations for a November 1st workshop on microfiction. I attended Bryony Good’s Mycelia writing workshop which generated some interesting ideas – I just need time to finish them.
We had our six-monthly assessment sessions at work, which took a lot of preparation. Now they’re over, I’m focusing on client work for a while. While I have been worn out, I’m still enjoying my job, and actively look forward to seeing colleagues. I spent a lot of my life resenting work, so this has been a positive change.
I only watched four movies in September and didn’t make it to the cinema at all. I read several books including Ian McEwan’s What Can We Know and Emily St John Mandell’s new novel, Exit Party. Will Maclean’s Solace House was a fun read. It was chosen as part of the Drawing Blood book club at In A Land, and I’ve reviewed it here as I couldn’t make the. session. Probably my favourite book of the month was Janine Warren’s indie music oral history The World Was a Mess But His Hair Was Perfect.
Rosy and I watched the first season of The Rehearsal. I’d read about Fielder for a while, but was pushed to actually watch the show by an Adrian Hon essay. Excellent television.
